The Hegemonic Female Fantasy

from Film Reader, No. 5, 1982
(Evanston IL: Northwestern University)



"We grow up in a world of received notions and attitudes, around which we shape our emotional life. We can analyze hegemony in terms of institutional compulsion or the way that institutions structure choices, we can also analyze how our desires and emotions often lead us to choose or settle for commonly held ideas about what our life as women should be."
Read more: http://pages.uoregon.edu/jlesage/Juliafolder/HEGEMONIC.HTML

Share your thoughts about hegemony in the comments below. 

Critic's Notebook: Beyonce's 'Lemonade' Is a Revolutionary Work of Black Feminism

“I tried to be soft, prettier, less awake.”
"The most disrespected person in America is the black woman," Malcolm X says early in the film in a sampled speech.

Read more:
 http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/critics-notebook-beyonces-lemonade-is-887240
http://verilymag.com/2016/04/beyonce-new-album-lemonade-tidal-music-news-2504

In the 21st Century, Art Is a Woman's Job Too

This makes me think we are still in the early 20th century, where marriage was a woman's real "job."

Read and comment your reaction → An 18th century exhibit that speaks to 21st century L.A.

Barbara Kruger - My Inspiration

• An American conceptual/pop artist 
• She developed an interest in graphic design, poetry, writing and attended poetry readings.
• Moved to New York where she began attending Parsons School of Design in 1965. 
• She studied with fellow artists/photographers Diane Arbus and Marvin Israel, who introduced Kruger to other photographers and fashion/magazine sub-cultures. 
• Kruger worked at Condé Nast Publications in 1966. 
• After she started to work at Mademoiselle magazine as an entry-level designer, she was promoted to head designer a year later.
• Later still she worked as a graphic designer, art director, and picture editor in the art departments at “House and Garden”, “Aperture,” and
• She did magazine layouts, book jacket designs, and freelance picture editing for other publications. 

Women artists in the 20th century: a changing landscape

"Women have always been artists, and there always have been glimpses of women’s art within male-driven societies. Still, women artists faced difficulty in the centuries that followed when trying to engage with the art world and canon." 

Eileen Agar, The Autobiography of an Embryo, 1933–4

Reflect on the following questions:

• How have women been represented, underrepresented, and misrepresented in art history?

• How should we tell the stories of forgotten women artists today?

Womanhouse

What is it?

Womanhouse was an art experiment that addressed the experiences of women. 

_________________________________________________________________________________

Who are they?

Twenty-one art students refurbished an abandoned house in Los Angeles and turned it into a provocative 1972 exhibit. Womanhouse received national media attention and introduced the public to the idea of Feminist Art.The students devoted enormous amounts of their time in late 1971 to refurbishing the house, which had broken windows and no heat. They struggled with repairs, construction, tools, and cleaning out the rooms that would later house their art exhibits.

_________________________________________________________________________________

When was it open to the public?

Womanhouse was opened to the public in January and February of 1972, gaining a national audience. Each area of the house featured a different work of art.

_________________________________________________________________________________

“Bridal Staircase,” by Kathy Huberland

Judy Chicago’s “Menstruation Bathroom.” 

For more information check out the link below:

Womanhouse

How the Feminist Movement changed the Art World

Women’s Artistic Liberation →  Historical Context →  Becoming a Movement in the 1970s → Feminism and Postmodernism →  Feminist Art and Diversity → Backlash

The Feminist Movement in Art

A Brief History of Women in Art

"Throughout the centuries, women have been involved in making art, whether as creators and innovators of new forms of artistic expression, patrons, collectors, sources of inspiration, or significant contributors as art historians and critics.

Women have been and continue to be integral to the institution of art, but despite being engaged with the art world in every way, many women artists have found opposition in the traditional narrative of art history. They have faced challenges due to gender biases, from finding difficulty in training to selling their work and gaining recognition..."

To read more go to the following link: Women in Art 

Now take a few minutes to reflect on the following question:

How have women come forward as such strong voices in art and art history today, and how do we go about telling the stories of those who were forgotten by history?

"National Museum of Women in the Arts presents diverse temporary exhibitions as well as a collection of 4,500 artworks by more than 1,000 women artists." 

Their collection includes acclaimed works by exceptional historical artists such as Mary Cassatt, Lavinia Fontana, Clara Peeters, and Élisabeth Louise Vigée-Lebrun as well as modern and contemporary artists such as Magdalena Abakanowicz, Chakaia Booker, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, and Joana Vasconcelos. 

Recent Acquisitions
16th–17th Century
18th–19th Century
20th Century
Contemporary

Collection Highlights

Did you enjoy their collection. Lets visit these upcoming events:
Apr 20 2016 - Gallery Talk: She Who Tells a Story
Apr 24 2016 - Cultural Capital: Women of The Ring
Apr 27 2016 - Gallery Talk: Womanimal

Voices of a Movement

A film by Lynn Hershman Leeson

Stanford University hosted the complete WAR Interviews in 2010, available online on the Stanford University Art And Special Collections Libraries site.

"The artists’ and critics’ interviews presented here chronicle the founding years of the feminist art movement in the 1970s. While focusing on the events of that decade and the following, these narratives also discuss the impact of the civil rights, anti-war, and women’s rights movements. Created by artist and filmmaker Lynn Hershman Leeson over the last two decades (1990-2008) as she developed her groundbreaking documentary, !Women Art Revolution, this archive provides the first-person histories of the pioneering individuals who challenged the ways in which women were considered by the reigning art establishment. Available from this site are the videos, transcripts, and biographies on the interviewees as well as links to the Women Art Revolution collection finding aid, information on the documentary !Women Art Revolution, and other feminist studies resources."

Link to videos of interviews with individual artists

"Through intimate interviews, art, and rarely seen archival film and video footage, !Women Art Revolution reveals how the Feminist Art Movement fused free speech and politics into an art that radically transformed the art and culture of our times."

Videotaped interviews with over 40 artistscritics, historians, and curators